I wasn't able to find who S. M. the young African painter was - if any of you have information, please let us know. It would be fun to see some of his work. Phillis Wheatley brings it alive in words....

Thursday, June 19, 2014

Even though the grizzly bear in this painting by Robert Bateman is in the background - he stays the center of our attention. Love those detailed rocks and the reflective water even in the mist and of course the seagulls in motion.

"Helicon" - (this from Wikipedia)"Helicon was briefly mentioned in some stories of Orpheus. After he was
killed by some of Dionysus' followers, the women tried to wash their
hands clean of the blood spilt. The river sank itself so as not to
become tainted with the murdered man's blood."

"Sylvanus" - (also from Wikipedia) "Silvanus (Latin: "of the woods") was a Romantutelary deity of woods and fields. As protector of forests (sylvestris deus), he especially presided over plantations and delighted in trees growing wild. He is also described as a god watching over the fields and husbandmen, protecting in particular the boundaries of fields.

"Tithon" - (Wikipedia) "Eos, the Goddess of Dawn, took Tithon (Tithonus), son of Laomedon to be her lover. She asked Zeus
if Tithonus could be made immortal, but forgot to ask for eternal
youthfulness as well. Tithonus lived forever but grew more ancient and
wrinkled, eventually turning into a grasshopper." and more here. Shakespeare makes mention of Tithon's bed in a couple of his plays.

"Empyreal" - Belonging to or deriving from heaven. "Flora"(Wikipedia) is the plant life occurring in a particular region or time, generally the naturally occurring or indigenous—native plant life. The corresponding term for animal life is fauna.

Thursday, June 5, 2014

Following is a link to the paintings we will be viewing this summer:Picassa Web Album of Robert Bateman Paintings. Though they are
copyrighted we have been given permission to copy them for educational
use. I'd like to revisit Franz Joseph Haydn, partly because I'd like my children to experience again the wonderful oratorio - The Creation, but I like his other works as well and think that they are worth studying more than once. Here is a nice children's biography by Opal Wheeler, Joseph Haydn - the Merry Little Peasant.

Franz Joseph Haydn was
an Austrian composer during the Classical Period. He is often called
the "Father of the Symphony". One of my favorites works by Haydn is his
oratorio "The Creation". This oratorio is long and you may want to watch a bit each day for the next two or three weeks. Much of this is taken directly from scripture and some comes
from John Milton's "Paradise Lost". The music itself beautifully
parallels the words and describes the creation with sound. From the
very beginning sounds, starting with chaos until God says "Let there be
light," you can almost hear the light burst forth. When we listened I
photocopied an enlarged copy of the words from the booklet in the CD for
my children so they could follow along. I tried unsuccessfully to find
the words online. The Following link is an overview of this oratorio.
It includes detailed descriptions of this oratorio http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Creation_(Haydn). If
you don't plan to listen to the whole thing I would recommend Part 3 as
a sample. It is from Day 3 of Creation or you might enjoy Part 7 which
has lots of animals. This video intersperses the musicians with
beautiful and fitting photography. You can listen to the whole oratorio
in about 10 minutes a day for twelve days. I will be featuring this
oratorio for four weeks to give time to listen to the whole thing (three sessions per week).

About Me

I am a follower of the LORD Jesus, Brian's wife for 34 years, a mother of 11, Grandma to ten. I love the LORD and His Word and I love my family, especially teaching and discipling my precious children. We're "addicted" to good books and having company, though not usually at the same time....